The Association and Its History

Dr. Katrin Hennings is a pediatrician and the overall medical director of the Nicaragua Projekt e.V.

Already at the end of her medical studies with subsequent doctorate (Dr. med.) at the University of Hamburg, she spent five months in a mission hospital in Malawi in Southeast Africa.

Her professional career then began as a doctor for internal medicine and pediatrics in Scotland, and in 1988 she moved to the DRK Hospital in Bremerhaven.

In 1993, she became a specialist in pediatrics there and finally headed the neonatology department as senior physician from 1995 to 2002.

Since 2002, Dr. Katrin Hennings has lived alternately in Germany and Central America, supporting medical projects in Panama and was involved with the Red Cross in Haiti.

In Nicaragua, together with her husband, she set up a mobile clinic in 2005 on behalf of the organization "Doctors for the Third World."

Since then, she has worked as a doctor in Nicaragua several times and was also coordinator of the mobile clinic and a dental project for "Doctors for the Third World / German Doctors e.V."

For the Nicaragua Project, she works voluntarily as both the first chairperson of the association and on-site as leading doctor and overall medical director.

Reinhart Bein was a pilot and sea captain and the organizational backbone of the Nicaragua Project.

Already at the age of 14, he signed on as a ship's boy and at 26 became the youngest deep-sea captain in Germany at the time.

In 1965, he began his career at Deutsche Lufthansa, first as a navigator, later as a pilot.

Until his retirement in 1995, he flew the Boeing 747 as a long-haul captain.

But as early as 1983, Reinhart Bein was drawn to the sea again: As captain on the training ship Thor Heyerdahl and other traditional sailing ships and as first officer on the Alexander von Humboldt, he was in service.

Since 2006, as second chairman of the Nicaragua Project, he was a vital support for the ever-new organizational challenges with his wealth of experience.

Reinhart Bein passed away in November 2019.

Dulce Maria Calderon was the founder and volunteer director of the girls' project "Maria de Nazaret."

She was born as the ninth of 15 siblings and grew up in modest circumstances in Ocotal.

After graduating from secondary school, she became a nurse.

Due to a severe car accident with a recovery period of more than two years, she gave up her desire to study medicine.

After a commercial training and corresponding professional activity, she began studying theology in 1995 and later social sciences.

Already in 1999, she began supporting young women and girls in need together with Viola Castillo.

Initially, she worked directly in the prison of Ocotal, later she was able to rent a house for her protégés.

With the founding of the "Asociacion Vida Nueva Catolica para la promocion Humana" she was also able to acquire a first own house for social work in Barrio Sandino in 2007.

In 2009, a second house in the center of Ocotal was added.

Dulce Maria Calderon passed away in October 2021.

Jasmin Solfaghari, born in Freiburg im Breisgau, grew up in Tehran, Iran, and in her birthplace in Baden-Württemberg.

She completed her directing studies with Prof. Götz Friedrich in Hamburg.

This was followed by positions as stage manager at the Hamburg State Opera, staging senior stage manager at the Bremerhaven City Theater, and as senior stage manager at the German Opera, Berlin.

As a director, Jasmin Solfaghari stages an extensive repertoire from Baroque to Modern at home and abroad.

Thus she created the narrator figure LUNA, with which she very successfully brought Figaro's Crazy Day, The Ring in 100 Minutes, La Cenerentola and Der Freischütz for children from Vienna via Leipzig to Berlin on stage.

From 2004 to 2011, Jasmin Solfaghari was a professor at the University of Music and Theater, Leipzig and leads international master classes for singers and gives multilingual lectures in Germany, Italy, Israel, the USA and Brazil.

She is also the author of "Opera Guide for Beginners: German-Alemannic and German-Saxon", which was published by Schott Verlag in 2017.

Jasmin Solfaghari also volunteers for various projects.

Thus she is active as a member of the Artistic Direction of the "Festive Opera Gala of the German AIDS Foundation" at the German Opera Berlin, she is jury chairperson of the young talent award of the Richard Wagner Foundation Leipzig, and for the Nicaragua Projekt e.V. she has taken over the patronage.

Martina Morich, born in Hamburg in 1963, completed her training as a physical therapist in Berlin from 1983 to 1986.

She then spent two years gaining professional experience at a clinic in Zurich, Switzerland, where she worked as part of an international team.

Since returning to Hamburg, she has worked both as a self-employed physical therapist and in a salaried position. Her professional focus is primarily on treating adult patients in the fields of orthopedics, neurology, and postoperative surgical care.

Whenever her family and professional circumstances allow, Martina Morich loves to travel. For her, interacting with people from different cultures is enriching and contributes to her personal growth.